Oregon Secretary of State Dennis Richardson on Monday revealed his draft for a new system of drawing legislative districts. But he quickly drew criticism for its complexity and its effect of giving the secretary of state new powers.
Any changes to how Oregon accomplishes redistricting would be the result of a lengthy and likely contentious process of public hearings and debate. But Richardson, the first Republican to be Oregon's secretary of state in three decades, is getting a jump start by convening a redistricting task force to draft potential changes for the hot-button political issue.
His plan would establish a redistricting commission to set legislative district boundaries with maps drawn by a complex, custom computer algorithm. Voters would ultimately have to approve amending the Oregon Constitution to add the new system -- a massive, 18-page set of legal instructions.
The plan represents a departure from the current way of drawing legislative districts. The Oregon Constitution requires elected legislators to update district maps, with legal review handled by the Oregon Supreme Court. Richardson's plan would scrap that system.
Richardson said redistricting "can be used, and often has been used, to stack the deck" in favor of one political party. But he said he wants to find a "fair, nonpartisan unbiased way" to draw legislative districts.
Richardson argued that his plan would reduce the secretary of state's influence over redistricting.
"If this were to go through it means that as secretary of state I'd be lessening my power," he said.
Critics disagreed.
"This would put it all in the hands of the secretary of state to appoint a commission that accomplishes whatever objective the secretary might want. It removes some of the accountability and citizen input," said Senate Democrats caucus administrator Tom Powers. Powers was an aide to Democratic legislators during redistricting in 2011.
Ben Unger, executive director of liberal-leaning advocacy coalition Our Oregon, said Richardson's redistricting plan represents a "power grab" because it takes redistricting out of the hands of the Legislature and the courts.
Jeanne Atkins, who heads the Democratic Party of Oregon said in a statement that Richardson's plan is "a new kind of election gerrymandering" created without the input of Democrats.
"This is not reform. It's a plan that imagines a problem where none exists and then proposes an impossibly complicated and unbalanced solution," said Atkins, who was secretary of state herself prior to Richardson.
Members of Richardson's redistricting task force also aired concerns with the plan during Monday evening's meeting.
"It needs quite a bit of tweaks. Potentially a lot of deletions," said task force member Seth Woolley, of the Pacific Green Party of Oregon.
"My overall impression," said Norman Turrill, president of the League of Women Voters of Oregon, "is that we're trying to make this much too complicated."
Redistricting is set to take place in 2021, following the next U.S. census.
-- Gordon R. Friedman
503-221-8209; @GordonRFriedman
Correction, April 25: This article has been updated to correct the title of Norman Turrill.